Can you explain a bit more what you dislike about the SP101 in 22LR? My main defensive handgun is an SP101 in 357 Magnum, and I kinda wanted a 22LR range gun, and was debating between the MkIV and the SP101.
Sure. The SP 101 has a heavy and gritty trigger pull that even one of the best gunsmiths (Bill Oglesby) has not been able to correct and he did all of my
Ruger single action work flawlessly. In addition, at lease two of the chambers in the cylinder were bored badly and the revolver cylinder often jams unless the errant cylinders are vigorously scrubbed with a brass brush before reloading. Because the casings stick in these cylinders, the extractors have become damaged. Now I realize this gun should be sent back to the factory, but I also know that the
Ruger of old is not the
Ruger of today when it comes to customer service and warrantee work, so I have just cleaned the gun and packed it up in the back of one of safes. I just don't want the hassle. I have never had a Ruger double action that didn't need an action job, but this is far more than that. For a $500 gun, this kind of problem is unacceptable to me. I have also heard on another forum devoted to rimfires that the 101 problems are fairly common in .22, even though the 101s made in center fire do not experience some of the problems.
All of that said, I actually like other Rugers. I love their single action handguns once they have had an action job and own a number of them including a bearcat in .22. I own a .44 magnum carbine bought new in the 1960s that I will never sell, a .22 WRM bolt action "paddle tail" that I use quite a bit, and two 10-22s along with a Mini 14. I used to own an older Mini 14 and replaced it with a newer one that is far more accurate than the older one.
Ruger has apparently greatly improved this gun over the years.
The
MK IV is another story. I have one of the new hunters and with some upgrades as mentioned in the previous post, cannot recommend this gun highly enough. It replaced a Mark II only because of the changes that made it easier to reassemble after cleaning and it is every bit as accurate as the Mark II and possibly better. I love this gun!
If you are making a choice between the two - the MKIV is the best choice by far. If you want to buy an SP101 I would certainly sell the one I own and it has had an action job on it by Bill Oglesby but I would not recommend it.